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Christian  duty 
Conf  Pam  12mo  #472 


Christian  Duty  in  the  Present  Time  of  Trouble. 


A  SERMON 


I'IIKAi'ILKD    AT 


ST.  JAMES'   CHURCH, 

\vi  lmington;  X.  c, 


ON    THE 


Fifth  Sundav  after  Easter.  1861 


BY    THE 


RIGHT  REV.  THOMAS  ATKINSON,  D.  D., 

BISHOP  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 


L}UJiLISHED    BY    REQUEST 


WILMINGTON,   N.   C: 

FULTON  &  PRICE,   STEAM  POWER  PRESS   PRINTERS. 

1861. 


THE 

WILLIAM  R.  PERKINS 

LIBRARY 

OF 
DUKE  UNIVERSITY 


Rare  Books 


CORRESPONDENCE 


Wilmington,  May  Gib,  18G1. 


Rt.  Rev.  Thos.  Atkinson. — Dear  Sir: 


We  enjoyed  the  privilege  ot  hearing  the  Sermon  delivered  by  you  at  St. 
James'  Church,  on  Sunday  last,  and  being  assured  that  its  publication  would 
be  productive  of  great  good,  we  beg  you  will  consent  to  furnish  us  with  a 
copy  for  the  purpose  indicated. 


Most  respeel fully 


THOS.  D.  WALKER, 
THOS.  W.  BROWN. 
J.  H.  FLANNKR. 
THOS.  H.  HARDIN, 
J.  E.  LIPPITT. 
WM.  A.  BERRY. 
WALKER   MEARES, 


WM.  A.  WRIGHT, 
JAMES  S.  GREEN 
L.  LANE. 
W.  H.  LIPPITT. 
A.  MARTIN, 
JAMES   G.  BURR. 
D.  S.  COWAN. 


Wilmington,  May  10th,  1861. 

Messieurs  Thomas  D.  Walkek,  W.  A.  Wright  and  others, — 

Gentlemen  :— The  Sermon  you  ask  for  is  at  your  service,  and  I  am  truly 
pleased  that  the  line  of  conduct  it  recommends  should  approve  itself  to  the 
judgment  of  persons  whose  opinions  have  so  much  weight  as  yours  ;  and 
who,  I  believe,  were  not  able  altogether  to  agree  on  some  of  the  preliminary 
questions  connected  with  our  present  troubles. 

I  remain,  with  great  respect  and  regard, 

Faithfully,  your  friend, 

THOMAS  ATKINSON. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2011  with  funding  from 
Duke  University  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/christiandutyinp01atki 


^l  SERMON 


"  Blesed  is  the  man  that  endureth  temptation  5  for  when  he  is  tried,  he 
shall  receive  the  crown  of  life  which  the  Lord  hath  promised  to  them  that 
love  Him.'?--Sf.  James,  first  Chapter,  UtJ.  Verse. 

We  stand  to-day,  dear  brethren,  in  the  midst  of  circumstances 
of  great  doubt  and  anxiety,  with  provocations  tending  to  kindle  the 
bitterest  and  most  vehement  passions,  and  with  the  line  of  duty  in 
many  instances  difficult  to  trace,  and  difficult  to  follow,  even  when 
traced.  Never  did  we  stand  more  in  need  of  right  counsels,  delib- 
erate and  conscientious  reflection,  earnest  purpose  to  do  our  duty, 
and  heartfelt  dependence  on  God  our  Saviour,  for  guidance  and 
strength  to  enable  us  for  its  performance.  We  stand  to-day,  face 
to  face  with  civil  war,  a  calamity,  which,  unless  the  experience  and 
universal  testimony  of  mankind  deceive  us,  is  direr  and  more  to  be 
deprecated  than  foreign  war,  than  famine,  than  pestilence,  than  any 
other  form  of  public  evil.  The  cloud  we  have  all  been  so  long 
watching,  which  we  have  seen,  day  by  day,  and  month  by  month, 
enlarging  its  skirts,  and  gathering  blackness,  is  now  beginning  to 
burst  upon  us. 

It  seems  to  me  that  no  one  but  an  Atheist,  or  an  Epicurean, 
can  doubt  that  it  is  God  who  rides  in  this  storm,  and  will  direct  the 
whirlwind,  and  that  He  now  calls  upon  us  to  look  to  Him,  to  con- 
sider our  ways  and  our  doings,  to  remember  the  offences  by  which 
we  have  heretofore  provoked  Him,,  and  to  determine  on  the  conduct 
we  will  hereafter  pursue  towards  Him,  towards  our  fellowmen,  and 
towards  ourselves. 

I  feel  that  we  have  some  solid  grounds  of  encouragement  to  hope 
for  His  favour.     This  Commonwealth,  with  whose  fortunes  our  own 


6 

are  linked,  cannot  be  said  to  have  had  any  hand  in  causing,  or  pre- 
tcipitating  the  issue  before  us.  She  has  sought,  till  the  last  momen, 
to  avert  it,  and  she  has  incurred  censure  by  these  efforts.  But 
when  compelled  to  elect  between  furnishing  troops  to  subdue  her 
nearest  neighbors  and  kindred,  and  to  open  her  Territory  for  the 
passage  of  armies  marshalled  to  accomplish  that  odious,  unauthor- 
ized and  unhallowed  object,  or  to  refuse  to  aid,  and  to  seek  to  hinder 
such  attempts,  she  chose  the  part  which  affection,  and  interest  and 
duty  seems  manifestly,  and  beyond  all  reasonable  question,  to  require. 
What  she  has  done,  and  is  about  to  do,  she  does,  as  an  old  writer 
finely  says  in  such  a  case,  (i  willingly,  but  with  an  unwilling  mind," 
as  an  imperative,  but  painful  duty.  Such  is  the  temper,  we  may 
be  well  assured,  in  which  it  best  pleases  Grod,  that  strife  of  any  sort, 
especially  strife  of  this  sort,  should  be  entered  on. 

There  is  another  consideration  from  which  I  derive  great  comfort, 
and  which  is  certain  to  give  comfort  to  all  who  receive  it.  It 
is  that  whatever  we  may  think  of  some  of  the  earlier  steps  in 
these  disputes,  yet  as  to  the  present  questions  between  the  North 
and  the  South,  we  can  calmly,  conscientiously,  and,  I  think,  con- 
clusively, to  all  impartial  men,  maintain  before  God  and  man  that 
now  at  least  we  of  the  South  are  in  the  right.  For  we  are  on  the  de- 
fensive, we  ask  only  to  be  let  alone.  That  old  Union  to  which  we 
were  all  at  one  time  so  deeply  attached,  is  now  dissolved.  It  can- 
not be,  at  this  time,  amicably  reconstructed.  No  one  proposes  it 
shall  be  done — no  one  supposes  it  can  be  done.  Shall  there  then  be 
a  voluntary  and  friendly  separation,  or  an  attempt  at  subjugation. 
This  is  really  the  question  before  the  people,  lately  known  as  the 
people  of  the  United  States.  How  strange  that  there  should  be  any 
doubt  as  to  the  answer ! !  That  men  should  hesitate  which  to  pre- 
fer, a  peaceful  separation  of  those  who  cannot  agree,  or  civil  war, 
with  all  its  horrors,  and  all  its  uncertain  issues ! !  We  ask  the  for- 
mer— those  so  lately  our  brethren  demand  the  latter.  Should  they 
insist  on  this,  and  should  they  succeed  in  this  detestable  strife  to  the 
very  height  of  their  hopes,  it  would  be  worse  than  a  barren  victory. 
It  would  be  a  victory  that  would  cost  the  conquerors  not  only  mate- 


rial  prosperity,  but  the  very  principles  of  government  on  which 
society  with  them,  as  with  us,  rests. 

I  cannot  then  doubt,  and  it  seems  a  singular  hallucination  that 
any  man  should  mistake,  the  righteous  cause  in  this  present  most 
lamentable  controversy,  and  I  hope  and  I  believe  that  God  will  bless 
with  temporal  success  the  righteous  cause.  He  may  not,  however 
for  He  does  not  always  see  fit  to  make  right  visibly  triumphant,— 
But  succeed  or  not,  it  is  the  cause  on  the  side  of  which  one  would  desire 
to  be  found.  Yet,  however  this  thought  may  cheer  us,  we  cannot 
disguise  from  ourselves  that  success,  should  we  obtain  it,  will  not 
probably  be  reached  until  after  an  arduous  and  painful  stru<Me  in- 
volving severe  trials  of  the  feelings,  and  of  the  character  of  the 
community,  and  of  ourselves  individually.  And  no  man  yet  knows 
how  he  shall  meet  these  trials.  The  most  self-confident  are  usually 
the  first  to  fail.  «  Let  not  him  that  girdeth  on  his  armour  boast 
himself  as  he  that  taketh  it  off." 

Since,  then,  a  searching  trial  seems  to  await  us,  let  us,  in  God's 
strength,  endeavor  to  prepare  for  it,  and  in  order  thereto,  listen 
with  obedient  faith  to  the  instructions  of  that  holy  man,  whose 
righteousness  was  so  exemplary  that  Jews,  as  well  as  Christians, 
knew  him  by  the  name  of  James  the  Just.  "  Blessed,  says  he,  is 
the  man  that  endureth  temptation,  for  when  he  is  tried,  he  shall 
receive  the  crown  of  life,  which  the  Lord  hath  promised  to  them 
that  love  Him." 

Temptation  or  Trial  (for  they  mjan  the  the  same  tiling)  comes  to 
man  in  two  forms.  Prosperity  or  Adversity,  of  which  the  former 
is  the  more  generally  dangerous.  Prosperity  tempts  us  by  inclin- 
ing us  to  forget  God,  and  to  love  the  world  which  so  smiles  upon 
us,  by  slackening  the  reins  on  the  necks  of  our  appetites  and  pas- 
sions, by  opening  the  door  to  vices  which  our  very  circumstances 
might  otherwise  shut  out  from  us,  by  nourishing  selfishness,  by 
deadening  sympathy,  and  by  weakening  faith.  Great  prosperity 
has  been  the  ruin  of  many  countries,  and  of  many  men  in  every 
country.  It  has  surely  been  the  occasion  of  a  large  part  of  our 
present  miseries/    Never  in  the  history  of  the  world  was  there  such 


8 

a  rapid  advance  made  by  any  people  in  all  the  elements  of  power, 
abundance  and  splendor,  as  was  made  by  this  nation  in  the  last  for- 
ty years.  "We  passed,  as  in  a  day,  from  national  childhood  to  a  most 
robust  and  formidable  manhood.  We  were  the  admiration,  the 
envy,  the  wonder,  and  I  may  say,  the  fear  of  all  other  people. — 
England  and  France  bore  that  from  us  which  they  never  would 
have  endured  from  each  other.  It  was  not  of  our  Army  and  Navy 
that  they  stood  in  awe,  but  they  were  reluctant  to  give  umbrage  to 
a  people  who  fed  their  commerce,  and  upheld  their  manufactures. 
With  this  influence  abroad,  when  we  looked  at  home  we  saw  villa- 
ges growing  up  in  a  few  years  into  great  cities,  a  soil  which  to-day 
was  a  quaking  morass,  to-morrow  sustaining  immense  blocks  of 
buildings,  warehouses  bursting  with  their  stores,  dwellings  not  mere- 
ly provided  with  comfort,  but  decorated  with  splendor,  and  this  not 
in  one  or  two  favored  spots,  as  sometimes  in  Europe,  but  on  the 
contrary,  we  saw  vast  territories  where  the  Buffalo  roamed,  and  the 
Deer  bounded,  and  the  form  of  man  Itad  not  appeared,  except  as 
the  Indian  was  observed  marching  along  his  war-path,  or  the  soli- 
tary trapper  gathering  his  furs ;  we  saw  these  wild  regions  changed 
almost  as  in  the  shifting  scenes  at  a  Theatre,  into  great,  rich  and 
populous  States.  Astonished  Europe  heard  year  by  year,  that  an- 
other million  had  been  added  to  the  numbers  of  the  mighty  Repub- 
lic, and  that  its  agriculture  and  commerce,  and  manufactures  were 
increasing  even  more  rapidly  than  its  population.  Then  came  the 
Mexican  war,  like  another  volume  of  steam,  and  made  the  rush  and 
roar  of  our  rapid  progress  still  more  astounding.  Then  came  more 
and  more  of  gold  and  glory,  and  expanding  territory. 

We  have  been  tried  by  prosperity  as  no  nation  ever  was  tried  be- 
fore, and  we  have  yielded  to  temptation  as  completely  and  unresist- 
ingly as  any  people  ever  did.  Those  old  stories  we  have  all  read 
were  outdone.  Kome  corrupted  by  the  conquest  of  Greece  and  of 
Asia,  Spain  demoralized  by  the  subjugation  of  the  Indies,  were 
prophetic  of  our  destiny.  Our  material  prosperity,  swift  as  was  its 
advance,  did  not  keep  pace  with  our  moral  deterioration.  Within 
the  memory  of  any  middle-aged  man  we  were  regarded  in  Europe 


9 

as  rigidly,  perhaps  ridiculously  precise  and  scrupulous  in  morals 
and  manners.  No  one  dreams  of  this  being  our  character  at  pres- 
ent. In  one  single  state,  and  that  a  small  one,  the  number  of  sui- 
cides average  annually  nearly  a  hundred.  What  the  number  of 
homicides  is,  no  statist,  I  presume,  would  undertake  to  tell.  This 
we  know,  that  if  the  the  blood  of  man,  shed  by  his  fellow-man  calls 
to  God  for  vengeance,  the  cry  that  pierces  the  ear  of  the  Lord  of 
Hosts  from  our  land  ceases  not  day  or  night.  Need  I  say  any  thing 
of  other  forms  of  vice — drunkenness,  lewdness,  gaming,  fraud, 
bribery,  peculation,  public  and  private?  And  with  this  such  law- 
lessness, such  haughtiness,  such  self-glorification  !  Who  that  looks 
abroad  on  our  country,  can  read  without  a  shudder,  the  prophetic 
language  of  St.  Paul  in  that  last  Epistle  written  from  Nero's  Dun- 
geon with  the  axe  and  block  at  hand,  when  with  purged  eye  he  reads 
the  signs  of  the  last  times,  and  thus  describes  them  :  ' ;  This  know 
also,  that  in  the  last  days,  perilous  times  shall  come,  for  men  shall 
be  lovers  of  their  own  selves,  covetous,  boasters,  proud,  blasphem- 
ers, disobedient  to  parents,  unthankful,  unholy,  without  natural 
affection,  truce-breakers,  false  accusers,  incontinent,  fierce,  despi- 
sers  of  those  that  are  good,  traitors,  heady,  high-minded,  lovers  of 
pleasure  more  than  lovers  of  God." 

Is  there  a  trait  in  this  dark  picture,  to  which  our  country  does 
not  furnish  a  living  likeness  !  We  have  been  tried  by  prosperity 
then,  and  we  have  not  stood  that  trial.  It  seems  clear  that  God  is 
now  about  to  withdraw,  at  least  for  a  time,  the  favours  we  have  so 
abused,  to  try  us  with  calamity.  There  is  no  man  this  day  in  that 
wide  land  which  was  called  the  United  States,  who  does  not  know 
trouble  and  affliction.  It  has  come  to  us  all,  in  some  form  or  other, 
and  to  many  in  many  forms.  See  how  our  national  wealth,  which 
was  so  dear  to  the  national  heart/is  disappearing  ! !  Whose  proper- 
ty has  not,  within  a  few  months,  been  reduced  in  value,  a  fourth, 
or  a  half,  whatever  his  personal  care  or  diligence  may  be.  The 
idolaters  of  money  are  crying  out  like  Micah  of  old,  "Ye  have 
taken  away  my  God,  and  what  have  I  left !"  Indeed  who  knows 
now  how  much  property  any  man  has  !     This  time  of  trouble,  like 


10 

the  grave,  levels  all  distinctions,  and  rich  and  poor  meet  together. 
Factories  and  shops  are  closed,  schools  are  deserted,  churches  are 
thinned,  in  every  family  the  husband,  or  the  father,  or  the  son,  or 
the  brother  has  marched,  or  is  preparing  to  march  to  the  uncertain 
issues  of  the  seige,  or  the  battle-field.  Thus  we  stand  to-day. — 
How  or  where  we  shall  stand  three  or  six  months  hence  no  human 
wisdom  can  inform  us.  And  how  shall  we  bear  what  may  await 
us  ?  As  yet  but  a  few  drops  have  fallen  on  us  from  the  cloud,  how 
will  it  be  when  its  full  fury  is  upon  us  ?  "  If  thou  hast  run  with 
the  footmen,  says  the  man  of  God,  and  they  have  wearied  thee, 
then  how  canst  thou  contend  with  horses  ?  and  if  in  the  land  of 
peace  wherein  thou  trustedst  they  wearied  thee,  then  how  wilt  thou 
do  in  the  swelling  of  Jordan  V  Let  us  then  remember  that  we  are 
now  entering  into  a  time  of  temptation,  and  of  very  severe  tempta- 
tion, and  that  temptation  does  not  necessarily  do  any  man  good,  but 
may  do  him  great  harm,  while,  however,  the  endurance  of  tempta- 
tion will  do  him  the  greatest  good,  "for  when  thus  tried,  he  shall 
receive  the  crown  of  life."  Everything  which  comes  to  us  from 
God,  is  in  some  sense  a  temptation;  that  is,  tries  us,  reveals  our 
character,  and  brings  us  a  benefit,  or  an  injury,  according  to  the 
use  we  make  of  it.  The  sunshine  which  ripens  the  sound  fruit, 
rots  the  unsound.  The  storm  which  prostrates  the  decayed  oak, 
sends  deeper  into  the  soil  the  roots  of  the  living  and  healthy.  So 
with  ourselves.  Health,  wealth,  wisdom,  power,  life  itself  is  a 
blessing  or  a  curse,  according  to  the  use  we  make  of  it.  So  it  is 
with  trouble  and  calamity.  They  are  medicines  in  the  hands  of 
the  Great  Physician,  but  we  may  so  receive  them,  as  that  to  us, 
they  shall  become  poison.  Affliction,  alas,  often  hardens  men's 
hearts,  makes  them  unthankful  and  rebellious  against  God,  envious 
and  malignant  towards  their  fellow-man.  The  worst  men  on  earth 
are  those  who  have  passed  through  the  extremes  of  the  two  condi- 
tions, who  have  known  nothing  but  unbroken  prosperity,  or  unmiti- 
gated misery.  On  the  other  hand,  the  best  men  the  world  has  ever 
seen,  are  those  who  have  borne  great  affliction,  and  by  God's  grace 
have  endured  the  trial.     Such  were  Noah,  Daniel  and  Job,  the 


11 

Prophets  and  Apostles,  the  great  Saints,  and  the  blessed  Martyrs, 
while  on  the  other  hand,  vice  has  never  been  so  shameless,  and  so 
pitiless  as  in  times  of  great  public  and  private  calamity,  such  as 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  the  plague  at  Athens,  and  the  great 
pestilences  in  Florence  and  London.  Out  of  the  furnace  of  affliction 
men  come  either  purified  or  hardened. 

I  repeat  it  then,  it  is  not  necessarily  good  for  us  to  meet  trouble, 
but  that  it  is  of  all  things  the  best  and  most  Christlike,  victoriously 
to  endure  it. 

Permit  me,  as  one  whose  duty  it  is  to  watch  for  your  souls,  in 
view  of  the  great  account,  to  oifer  you  in  all  humility  and  affec- 
tion, some  counsels  on  this  momentous  subject.  In  the  first  place 
then,  believe  and  lay  to  heart,  and  keep  constantly  before  your 
minds  this  most  certain  truth,  that  whosoever  may  be  the  instru- 
ments of  our  present  troubles,  God  is  the  efficient  author  of  them. 
Hear  the  word  of  the  Lord  which  He  spoke  to  His  ancient  people 
by  His  Prophet  Amos.  "  You  only  have  I  known  among  all  the 
families  of  the  earth,  therefore  will  I  punish  you  for  all  your  iniqui- 
ties." Mark  the  cause  and  effect.  Because  he  so  peculiarly  loved 
them,  He  would  punish  them.  And  He  adds:  "Shall  the  trumpet 
be  blown  in  the  city,  and  the  people  not  be  afraid  ?  Shall  there  be 
evil  in  the  city,  and  the  Lord  hath  not  done  it?"  And  so  the 
blessed  Jesus  said  to  Pontius  Pilot,  k '  Thou  couldst  have  no  power 
at  all  against  me,  except  it  were  given  thee  from  above."  And  to 
the  same  effect  is  the  message  of  God  to  Sennacherib,  King  of 
Assyria,  by  Isaiah  the  Prophet,  saying  with  regard  to  that  proud 
King's  boasted  victories  :  ' '  Hast  thou  not  heard  long  ago  that 
I  have  done  it,  and  of  ancient  times  that  I  have  form- 
ed it  V  And  then  he  adds :  "  I  will  put  my  hook  in  thy 
nose,  and  my  bridle  in  thy  lips,  and  I  will  turn  thee  back  by 
the  way  by  which  thou  earnest. "  The  first  requisite  to  success 
against  our  enemies  is,  reverent  obedience  towards  God,  for  again 
as  holy  scripture  sayeth  :  "When  a  man's  ways  please  the  Lord, 
He  maketh  even  his  enemies  to  be  at  peace  with  him."  Let  us 
then  earnestly  and  perseveringly  seek  the  favor  of  Him  without 


12 

whom  our  enemies  can  do  us  no  hurt — without  whom  not  a  hair  of 
our  heads  can  fall  to  the  ground.  Let  us  seek  His  favor  by  that 
which  He  so  loudly  calls  for  at  this  time,  by  repentance,  national 
and  individual,  by  prayer  public  and  private,  by  fervent,  faithful, 
constant,  prevailing  efforts  to  keep  God's  holy  will  and  command- 
ments, and  to  walk  in  his  holy  ways.  Secondly,  we  must  be  care- 
ful to  cherish  unity  and  mutual  affection  among  ourselves.  A 
censorious,  suspicious,  denunciatory  spirit,  always  evil,  always 
pernicious,  is  especially  to  be  deprecated  by  us  at  present.  Let  us 
avoid  as  the  last,  greatest,  and  most  shameful  of  calamities,  a  fall 
into  that  abyss  of  misery  which  engulphed  the  wretched  Jews  at 
Jerusalem,  when  assailed  by  enemies  from  without,  and  deserted  in 
spirit  and  counsel  by  God,  they  gave  themselves  over  to  hating  and 
slaughtering  one  another. 

Again  let  us,  as  far  as  may  be,  seek  to  check  in  ourselves  and 
others  the  growth  of  rancorous,  vindictive,  malignant  feeling 
and  the  use  of  bitter,  scornful  opprobrious  language  concern- 
ing those  once  our  brethren,  now,  alas,  it  would  seem  our 
enemies.  For  after  all  we  are  Christians,  or  we  have  been 
deceiving  ourselves,  and  the  world,  and'  all  but  God,  for  a  long 
time.  We  are  the  servants  of  Christ,  and  our  master's  eye  is 
upon  us  in  this  hour  of  trial.  We  are  the  servants  of  Christ,  and 
in  our  masters  visible  presence  we  shall  soon  be.  We  are  the  ser- 
vants of  Him  who  spoke  the  sermon  on  the  mount.  What  injunc- 
tions does  he  there  give  us  ?  What  feelings  does  He  there  bid  us 
to  cherish  ;  what  language  to  use  concerning  our  enemies  ?  We 
are  the  servants  of  Christ — what  language  did  he  use  to  Judas  Is- 
cariot  when  he  came  to  betray  Him  ?  What  prayer  did  He  offer 
for  those  who  nailed  him  to  the  cross  ?  And  how  shocking  does 
the  language  of  some  of  our  adversaries,  and  of  some  of  the  pro- 
fessed followers,  and  even  ministers  of  Christ,  among  our  adversa- 
ries, appear  to  us  ?     Shall  we  imitate  them  in  their  faults  and  sins  ? 

Again,  let  us  take  care  not  to  have  our  minds  possessed  by  this 
one  subject  of  our  national  troubles.  A  man  whose  thoughts  are 
engrossed  by  one  idea,  especially  if  that  be  an  agitating  and  exci- 


ting  idea,  is  on  the  verge  of  insanity.  And,  already,  men  hereto- 
fore of  firm  and  well-ordered  character,  have  committed  suicide 
from  the  pressure  of  this  one  distracting  thought,  the  troubl 
the  country.  And  I  hive  heard  already  from  a  certain  Lunatic 
Asylum,  (and  what  is  true  of  it  is  probably  true  of  all,)  that  its 
inmates  have  recently  bee  >ine  much  more  numerous  from  the  same 
cause.  Th  ■  best  remedy  1-  the  calm,  soothing,  elevating  influence 
of  religion.  Remember  the  testimony  of  the  Psalmist,  as  it  is  ex- 
press id  in  our  prayer-book  version  :  "  The  Lord  i<  King,  be  the 
people  jo  impatient.     He   sitteth  between  the   cherubim,  be 

30  unquiet."     Acquaint  thyself  with  him,  and  he  at 
peace.     Fou  will  be  to  intermit,   or  at  least   diminish   the 

performanc  \  of  your  religious  duties.  Never  yield  to  that  tempta- 
tion—dread it.  abhor  it.  N"ev  sr  had  you  such  o  scasion  to  he  fervent 
in  spi:  L  rd  as  now.     Be  more   assiduous   than  ever 

heretofore  in  rea  ling  the  Scriptures  and  th  »f  devout  nun. 

in  public  prayer,  and  tli  >  use  sram  ints,  an  I  ab  >ve  all,  in 

YOur  c]  tmestly  upon  God,  yea,  importunately  be- 

seeching Him  i"  send  peace,  to  advance  righteousness,  to  purify 
and  bless  the  land,  and  to  prepare  as,  even  by  these  troubles,  to 
expect  and  to  be  ready  for  His  coming.  Make  prayer  more  than 
ever  a  real  communion  with  God.  Temporal  deliverance  you  may 
well  and  properly  supplicate  ;  indeed  it  is  your  duty  to  ask  this,  but 
have  still  nearer  to  your  souls  the  deliverance  of  those  souls  from 
sin  and  obduracy,  and  w orldliness.  and  bad  passions,  and  His 
wrath,  and  I  irnal  death.  Cry  to  Him  in  the  all-prevailing  name 
of  Jesus,  not  for  yourself  only,  but  for  your  country,  wretched  and 
imperilled,  for  the  Church  weakened  in  its  efforts,  uncertain  as  to 
the  future  before  it ;  and  cry  to  Him  likewise  for  those  near  and 
dear  to  you,  for  husband,  brother,  father,  son,  that  He  would  guard 
and  preserve  them,  body  and  soul,  amid  the  exceeding  fury  of  this 
storm  which  now  shakes  our  land.  And  lastly,  remember  that  you 
3'ourselves  are  now  under  trial ;  that  the  issues  of  that  trial  are  for 
eternity,  that  though  sharp  it  will  be  short ;  and  that  if  you  endure 
to  the  end  you  will  be  saved,  and  that  the  sharper  the  trial  endured 


u 

the  more  glorious  will  be  the  salvation.  And  now,  dear  brethren, 
what  will  be  the  result  ?  Scripture  prophesies.it,  and  history  prophe- 
sies it.  Some  of  you  will  fail  in  this  time  of  temptation,  and  will 
not  endure  it.  Some  of  you,  I  fear,  will  sacrifice  to  the  passions 
of  the  hour  the  Christian  character,  and  the  Christian  hope.  Some 
of  you  will  come  out  of 'the  trial  purified  and  refined,  and  assured 
of  a  brighter  crown.  Resolve,  oh  Christian  hearer,  this  day,  in 
God's  strength,  to  which  class  you  will  belong  ;  whether  to  those  who 
will  cast  away  the  crown  to  which  perhaps  for  years  they  have  as- 
pired, or  those  who  hold  on  to  their  hope  with  greater  resolution 
than  before. 


Hollinger  Corp. 
PH8.5 


